Key features of Ubuntu 9.04 include faster boost times, a new notification system which takes a little getting used to but is an improvement on the previous system and ext4 filesystem support. Many of the major desktop changes come from the inclusion of Gnome 2.26 which better integrates Brasero as the default CD burning application and, perhaps most importantly, significant changes to Evolution to make the email client work better with Microsoft’s Exchange server.

On the server, Ubuntu 9.04 includes Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, a first step towards integrating cloud computing into the distribution using Eucalyptus. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is also compatible with Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) but can be run onsite behind corporate firewalls.

For the netbook market, Ubuntu Remix boosts boot-up times, sports a simplified interface and is known to support Asus Eee PC 900, Acer Aspire One and Dell Mini 9 netbooks.